Soulstone: Oblivion (World of Ruul Book 3)

by J. A. Cipriano

  But as she tore them apart, a huge gush of lava blood splashed up her arm and burned through her sleeve.

  “I’ve got her!” Crash said as he ran toward Terra.

  Nova glanced at me, and relief flooded her face. “There’s so many of them,” she said, raising her staff to send a lance of ice at a lava spider. “How do we stop them from spawning?”

  “How about we just kill them?” George said as he flashed by, a blast of blue exploding from him as he froze another cyclone.

  “Good plan, but if they’re gonna spawn endlessly — well, there’s more of them than us,” I said, checking my cooldown on Chaotic River. The skill was ready again, so I used it to summon a skeleton army between the party and a bunch more spiders. “But I think we’re turning the tide. Looks like there’s less of them now.”

  I stole a few seconds to assess things. Crash had healed Terra and they were both on their feet, looking for the next target. I counted four spiders, two ice monsters, three clockwork knights, and two cyclones. The doors were still open, but nothing seemed to be coming out of them.

  “Yeah, they’re definitely thinning out,” I said. “Let’s finish this.”

  Terra slashed at one of the spiders with her sword, and Nova hit her with Warrior’s Strength as I used Fire Forge on one of the ice monsters. Crash rushed a clockwork knight and threw Malediction at it, and as he jumped into finish it off with his sword, George froze a cyclone and blasted another knight with wind. As the knight Crash had attacked exploded into gears and bits of metal, he leveled up and started attacking the last knight with renewed energy.

  I kept up the fire attacks against the ice monsters, and Terra sprinted toward George as he hit the other cyclone with an icy wave.

  “Shadow Strike!” Terra called as she jumped in, grabbing both of the frozen tornadoes in with her tentacles and ripping them apart.

  As Nova took out the final ice monster with Star Scream, I noticed another spider skittering toward her that Terra must’ve missed. That bastard was mine.

  “Heroic Leap!” I shouted with a running start as I leaped past Nova with my sword raised, coming down to skewer the creature into an explosion of black and glowing orange.

  The silence that filled the chamber was almost eerie. We’d gotten them all.

  I leaned against the wall to catch a breath as everyone gathered loosely near the water door. “This place has the worst directions ever,” I said, shaking some of the blood from my sword. “How are we supposed to challenge the Dungeon Lord if he just keeps sitting there like a big, dumb … statue?”

  “Yeah, be careful what you wish for,” Crash muttered, giving me the side-eye.

  Just as he spoke, all four of the elemental doors slammed shut. And there was a vast, grinding, grating sound as the Dungeon Lord started to rise.

  35

  “Blessing of Courage!” Nova called, infusing everyone with a white glow as our health returned to full. It was a good call, since we’d probably need it.

  It took a long time for the Dungeon Lord to stand straight, giving us time to regen some of our lost mana. At full height, the snarling statue was probably twenty feet tall. Its glowing eyes glared down at us, swirling and sparking with all four colors of the elements. That was gonna be a lot of solid stone to take down.

  “What are we supposed to do, just start hitting it with stuff?” Crash said as he looked from his sword to the statue. “I’m not sure this is going to cut it. Did anybody bring dynamite or C4 or something?”

  I shook my head. “There has to be a way to beat it. We’ll figure it out as we go along.”

  “That’s my kind of plan,” Terra said as she readied her sword.

  More grinding sounds came from the Dungeon Lord statue as it started to wave all four of its arms, moving them in slow circles. The glowing crystals flashed, and bolts of colored lightning shot from them to strike the ground — and spawn more monsters.

  “Oh, come on,” I groaned as I sent my golems into the fray, dropping another Reflecting Fog on top of them. Then I targeted an ice monster ten feet to my left. “I’m really getting sick of these things. Fire Forge!” My sword glowed red as I charged at the shambling ice creature and struck the ground, surrounding it with fiery death.

  As George and Crash tag-teamed a spider, with George wind blasting it into the wall and Crash slaughtering it with a sword stroke, Nova cast Warrior’s Strength on Terra. Shimmering with a golden aura, she ran at the clockwork knight and jumped, kicking its helmeted head off with one blow.

  As I started toward the cyclone with the glowing jack-o-lantern face, more lightning bolts rained down from the Dungeon Lord’s still-waving arms, and more monsters sparked and roared to life. A jagged red bolt struck the ground between me and the cyclone, and a lava spider with burning eyes erupted into existence.

  Revulsion washed through me as I hacked at the spider, spraying red-hot blood all over the place. Just as I reduced it to goo, a pair of bony, freezing hands clamped around my arms and jacked me off the floor, launching me into the air on a path to the evil tornado’s funnel.

  “I am not going in there. Wind Blast!” I screamed, shoving a hand toward the wide, dark mouth of the funnel as I fell toward it. As Elizabeth’s pleasantly unnerving voice informed me that I’d learned Wind Blast and it was now available for use, the attack met the sucking force of the tornado and propelled me back in the air, away from the thing. I twisted around a few times and tried to air-walk into a general feet-down position, so maybe I wouldn’t land on my face.

  That was when I heard Nova call, “Feather Fall!” Soft white light surrounded me, and my descent slowed instantly.

  “Thanks,” I said with a wave of acknowledgment as I righted myself and came down — right in front of a swinging clockwork knight. “Star Scream!” I shouted, slamming an open palm right against its helmeted face.

  The colorful blast blew its semblance of a head apart, and it teetered and fell back slowly, crashing to the ground with a few wisps of smoke curling from the hole at the top of the armor.

  “Fire Fall! No, damn it, Feather Ball!” I heard Crash shout as he faced down an ice monster. “Fuck this. Malediction!” As dark green light poured from him and zapped the monster, he swung his sword behind him in the general direction of a lava spider. “Will somebody please kill that thing?”

  Terra glanced over at him in the middle of casting Shadow Strike on a tornado that George was still freezing. “Yeah, sure. Just tell me how!”

  I glared at the arm-waving statue as lightning continued to crackle from the crystals and burst into monsters. “Okay, Big Ugly, let’s take you down a few pegs. Corrosive Armor!”

  The yellow-green attack slammed the statue somewhere around its thankfully nonexistent nether regions — I was glad it wasn’t anatomically correct, because it wasn’t wearing clothes and I really didn’t want to see the Dungeon Lord’s dong. Corrosive energy spread up and down along the statue, darkening the stone a little. I thought there was a fine, hairline crack spreading from the spot where I’d hit it directly, but I couldn’t be sure.

  Before I could get closer to see if I’d done any actual damage, three lava spiders scuttled around and between the feet of the statue, heading straight for me.

  “No more spiders!” I screamed. “Water Wall!”

  I must have cast the spell really, really hard, because water gushed from the floor in massive jet streams and formed a tidal wave that not only washed the spiders out but crashed against the Dungeon Lord and surged up to its waist before it subsided.

  A strange flash of light from above caught my attention. I looked up to see the red fire crystal flickering. The light inside it had definitely dimmed a little. Maybe because I’d hit the statue with a water attack?

  Before I could ponder that further, George shouted a warning from behind me. I whirled to see him freezing yet another tornado. He must’ve really had it in for those things after one of them tried to eat him. “I saw that!” he called as he
bounded toward me, and I drew my sword to shatter the cyclone. “We’re gonna hit the big guy now, right? I’m all over that. Cone of Ice!”

  A practical tornado of blue shot forth from him and smashed into the Dungeon Lord, insta-freezing its entire torso. George hit him again with a stream of ice that just kept going and going — and the more the ice built up on the statue, the darker the fire crystal became.

  Finally, there was an enormous flash of red light from the fire crystal that washed the entire chamber in scarlet for a few seconds. As it faded, the red crystal went completely dark and stayed that way, and the arm that held it stopped moving.

  “What the hell was that?” Terra called as her sword smashed through a clockwork knight.

  George grinned. “I don’t know, but I’m killing the shit out of this boss! I’m gonna hit him again.”

  “Wait a second,” I told him. “I think it’s moving…”

  One enormous stone foot was lifting from the ground, gaining forward momentum.

  “Get back!” I shouted to George, making sure the bunny took off before I sprinted after him. We ran toward the others as the sound of grating stone filled the chamber, and then there was a gigantic thud that shook the ground.

  A jagged crack in the floor raced past me, widening as it broke apart the stone. The crack was headed straight for Terra — who was staring open-mouthed at the Dungeon Lord instead of the danger coming her way.

  There was no time to shout a warning, so I jumped.

  My leap carried me toward her just as the ground cracked open beneath her feet. As she gave a startled cry and started to fall, I slammed into her and knocked her to the floor several feet away, landing hard on top of her. “Er. Sorry,” I said as I propped up on my hands so she could breathe. “But in my defense, I think you were about to die.”

  “I know.” She grabbed my shirt, pulled me down and kissed me. “Thanks. Now get off me.”

  I was still reeling when she shoved me off, scrambled away and ran after an ice monster.

  “Kahn, get up! And explain what the hell that big red flash was,” Crash called from somewhere.

  I sprang to my feet trying to ignore how good that kiss had felt.

  “It was the fire crystal. We turned it off — well, mostly George did,” I said as I jumped back into the fray, taking on a clockwork knight. “He blasted the crap out of it with an ice attack. Which is technically water. So, now I’m thinking that if we hit the Dungeon Lord with enough of one kind of elemental attack…”

  “We turn off the crystals. And if that doesn’t kill it, at least it’ll stop these other assholes from spawning,” Crash said as he cut down an ice monster with Spectral Blades. I could practically see his mind racing. “Shit, I don’t think any one of us has earth skills. Terra? Nova?”

  “Nope, just buffs and general attacks,” Nova said.

  Terra shook her head as she used her sword’s wind attack to launch a clockwork knight into the air. “Most of mine are either shadow or Warrior specific.”

  Crash looked at me as I used Fire Forge on another ice monster. “You know I don’t. But—”

  “Hold on. I think I’ve got this,” he interrupted me. “I mean, I played a druid for a couple of months, so I remember a few of the attacks. But … dude, you’d better be right about this envisioning a skill and learning it out of thin air shit, because I don’t want that thing to squash me like a bug.”

  “I’m right,” I said as I grinned at him. Finally, the min-max train was leaving the station without Crash on board. “You just have to really focus on it.”

  “Yeah, right. Focus,” he muttered as he turned toward the Dungeon Lord and drew a deep breath. After a minute of pulling himself together, he raised both arms and shouted, “Rock Slide!”

  Yellow-brown light traced his hands and shot toward the ceiling. There was a series of rumbling cracks, and then jagged chunks of stone rained down on the statue, striking its head and arms.

  The white wind crystal flickered and dimmed.

  “Hey!” George squeaked as he dashed out of the path of a falling rock. “Warn a guy next time you’re about to break the ceiling, will you?”

  “Holy shit, that actually worked,” Crash blurted as he stared at his hands.

  “Yeah, and it worked on the boss too,” I said, turning to deal with another ice creature. The remaining crystals were still flashing out monsters, and we all had our hands full. “Keep it up!”

  “Okay,” Crash said firmly as he rolled up his virtual sleeves. “Let’s try this one. Petrify!”

  His hand shot out, and he directed a grayish-white blast of energy at the statue arm holding the earth crystal. The attack hit the Dungeon Lord’s forearm and spread, covering the limb with a cracked, dirty white film as the arm slowed to barely perceptible motion and the crystal dimmed to almost nothing.

  “One more time, you bastard,” Crash panted as he raised both arms again. “Everybody, move back,” he shouted, waiting a few seconds for the coast to clear before he yelled, “Rock Slide!”

  This time the cracks were louder, the shower of rocks bigger. As the attack pelted the Dungeon Lord, the white crystal flared impossibly bright and lit up the chamber like a camera flash, and then snuffed itself out.

  Then the other stone foot started to lift from the ground.

  “Guys, get out of the way!” I called, but Terra, Nova, and George were already running. Crash scrambled backwards a few steps, and then pivoted and ran toward the ice door as the Dungeon Lord’s massive clomper smashed the ground and split the floor.

  At least we knew that it only took a step when a crystal went out.

  “Okay, two down and two to go. No problem, right?” I said as I ducked a blast of frost from one of the ice monsters.

  “Right,” Nova said as she cast a glance around and raised her staff. “Sparkle Death!” The multicolored beam shot straight up and broke into four jagged volts, striking an ice monster, a tornado, and two clockwork knights. One of the knights and the ice monster dropped dead instantly. “Come on, Terra, let’s take out the water crystal,” she said calmly as she headed for the statue.

  Terra grinned and raced after her. “Hey, rabbit! We could use a few extra Wind Blasts,” she called over her shoulder.

  “Fuck yeah!” George said as he bolted along behind them.

  “I’ll stay back, use my Wind-enhanced Spectral Blades to hold off the knights,” Crash said as he proceeded to do so, activating his Branched skill to blow through a knight. “Well, at least some of us are feeling good about ourselves,” Crash noted to me as we turned to face a cyclone.

  I blazed the tornado with Fire Forge, noticing that fire attacks really did seem to kick ass against wind. “Yeah, I’m glad Nova has more confidence now,” I said.

  “Not just her. I saw you and the Goth chick,” Crash said with a twisted smile. “How the hell do you keep picking up women in this place? I mean, we’re in a frigging dungeon here.”

  I shrugged and grinned. “Guess it’s just my natural charm.”

  “Uh-huh. Your charm’s about as natural as a blue buffalo,” he shot back, laughing.

  Just then, I heard Terra shout, “Lightning Storm!” from across the room. I blinked and looked over to see actual lightning striking the Dungeon Lord from a wispy gray cloud that had formed over Terra’s raised arms. At the same time, George flashed into the air and hit the statue with Wind Blast.

  The water crystal flickered and burst into dazzling blue light that filled the chamber. As it faded, the crystal went dark and the arm stopped moving.

  “Okay, why did that work?” I said to Crash. “Lightning isn’t the same as wind.”

  He shrugged. “No, but it’s weather. I’m pretty sure all the weather spells fall under the umbrella of wind. Ha, get it? Umbrella?”

  Yeah, I was totally laughing on the inside.

  Terra, Nova, and George ran toward us as one of the statue’s feet started lifting. They cleared the area of the floor that cracked when
the foot came down — but this time the crack ran along the floor between the other two, breaking whole sections away and leaving a dark, gaping hole to oblivion right in front of the Dungeon Lord.

  “Shit!” Crash said as the floor collapsed and the remaining yellow crystal sparked out bolts of energy, spawning fresh clockwork knights. “How are we even going to get close enough to take the last one out now?”

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got it covered,” I said as I replaced the sword in my inventory and pulled out both daggers — the Black Mithril and the Tempered Dagger. “Nova, you and George deal with those cyclones. You both know Fireball, right?” I said, looking at Terra and Crash. They nodded, and I said, “Good. Just hit him with those, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

  As the others swung into action, I raced across the room toward the Dungeon Lord and circled toward the back of the statue, where the floor was still intact.

  After all, rogues liked to do it from behind.

  Crash and Terra had managed to dim the wind crystal a bit by the time I made my approach. Ten feet from the Dungeon Lord’s back, I jumped as hard as I could, bringing my daggers back for the blow. “Fire Forge!” I cried, pushing mana into the dual blades until they glowed a brilliant scarlet red.

  My feet rammed the statue’s shoulder blades, and I drove the daggers into both sides of the Dungeon Lord’s stone neck, the rock melting as fire erupted from the wounds.

  The yellow earth crystal stuttered and flared to supernova strength, covering the chamber in blinding white light. As the glow faded slowly, massive sharp cracking sounds filled the air and the Dungeon Lord statue started to lean forward, breaking apart as it fell toward the oblivion pit it had opened up.

  I jumped off toward the wind door just before the rubble tumbled into the hole and vanished.

  A message appeared on my HUD. System message: You have defeated the Dungeon Lord. You have earned 50% EXP. Your party has defeated the Dungeon of Oblivion. You have earned 75% EXP. Your Amulet of Oblivion has now become an Amulet of Ultimate Oblivion.